Joshua 14:8

8 The other men who went with me frightened the people, but I fully believed the Lord would allow us to take the land.

Joshua 14:8 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 14:8

Nevertheless, my brethren that went up with me
Meaning the rest of the spies, excepting Joshua, that went up with him into the land of Canaan to spy it, which they might be properly said to do, since they went up a hill or mountain, in order to go into it, ( Numbers 13:17 ) ;

made the heart of the people melt;
discouraged them, filled them with fears, sunk their spirits, that their hearts flowed, and became as weak as water, having no strength left in them, or hope of possessing the land; being told what stout and gigantic men the inhabitants of it were, and how strongly fortified were their cities:

but I wholly followed the Lord my God;
and did not join with them in an ill report of the good land; but having the fear of God before his eyes, walked after that, and delivered in his report faithfully, according to the dictates of his conscience, and the real sentiments of his mind; of this phrase, (See Gill on Numbers 14:24).

Joshua 14:8 In-Context

6 One day some men from the tribe of Judah went to Joshua at Gilgal. Among them was Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. He said to Joshua, "You remember what the Lord said at Kadesh Barnea when he was speaking to the prophet Moses about you and me.

7 Moses, the Lord's servant, sent me to look at the land where we were going. I was forty years old then. When I came back, I told Moses what I thought about the land.

8 The other men who went with me frightened the people, but I fully believed the Lord would allow us to take the land.

9 So that day Moses promised me, 'The land where you went will become your land, and your children will own it forever. I will give you that land because you fully believed in the Lord, my God.'

10 "Now then, the Lord has kept his promise. He has kept me alive for forty-five years from the time he said this to Moses during the time we all wandered in the desert. Now here I am, eighty-five years old.